Neil Lennon ready for pitch battle
The pitch at McDiarmid Park came in for heavy criticism after Rangers 2-0 win over St Johnstone last Tuesday and took another pounding on Sunday at the Alba Cup Final.
Celtic have came unstuck at Fir Park and Hampden over the last two months with Lennon concerned about the conditions his team will face tonight.
“I wasn’t chuffed to see the Challenge Cup Final played at McDiarmid Park on Sunday,” he admitted.
“The pitch didn’t look good for the Rangers game there last week but hopefully the rain will have softened it up a little bit.
“It’s something we might have to think about. There are certain areas you can’t play in on a bad pitch and it might be that we need to be more direct.
“It’s frustrating for people who pay good money to watch and frustrating for players. Robbie Keane commented on the playing surfaces last year. We have had a harsh winter and I’m not blaming the clubs but we have to address this – if only for the TV revenue.
“Broadcasters want to see a decent product and, with these pitches, it’s difficult to do that.”
[bet_365 type=’odds’ size=’300′ af_code=’365_061438′]
The Celtic boss added: “The players we have like to play football and that’s what we want to see. However you need to be able to adapt to different circumstances.
“Against Motherwell at Fir Park we made a poor start to each half and never got going. We need to be in the right frame of mind from kick-off because everyone wants to take our scalp.
“I’ve always looked forward to this stage of the season, even as a player.
“Every point is precious and every performance has to be spot on. I wouldn’t imagine we will tinker a lot but the pitch plays a big part and we’ll try to pick a side according to the conditions.
“I took a bit of a gamble by leaving out Scott Brown, Mark Wilson and Georgios Samaras against St Mirren because they were on a suspension tightrope but I felt I could do that with the players we have.
“Freddie Ljungberg, Ki Sung Yueng and Cha-Du Ri are international-class players and we were at home.
“There was a stodginess about us and that can happen in some games but we had a good bench.
“We had Shaun Maloney to come on and he’s a huge bonus at this stage of the season. We knew that if things were not going well we could change things with quality players.
“Shaun gave us a wee bit more life after Gary Hooper had to come off with an injury and Commons certainly made an impact. He scored a good goal for us and it was a big three points but it’s gone now.”
Why are the SPL delaying the post-split fixture announcement?
Follow Video Celts on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube
[bet_365 type=’generic’ size=’468′ af_code=’365_050711′]